Written by PatrickJ on Tuesday, August 29, 2006

SPB Diary 2.0 Released & Reviewed

"The new version introduces a bundle of new features like photo contacts, handy contact dialing, full stylus-free navigation, Special Events tab, PhatNotes integration and skin support as well as improved speed, better usability and many other changes. Considering the great amount of new features, it’s amazing that the new version of Spb Diary is faster in performance, more optimized in memory management, and takes up the same storage space on the device when compared to the previous 1.7.6 version."

This new version looks pretty nice, and there’s already a full review of it up at Clinton Fitch’s site (see end of this post for the link).

Read on for more details from SPB on the new version …

Spb Software House, the leading Windows Mobile software developer, releases Spb Diary 2.0, a major update to the award winning Pocket PC PIM Today plug-in.

Here is a brief overview of the new features and main changes introduced in Spb Diary 2.0:

* Photo contacts and handy dialing – Dialing a person’s number is now as simple as tapping a contact once to open a detailed popup and once again to dial. This feature will be greatly appreciated by owners of Phone Edition Pocket PC devices. Enabling the photo contacts feature significantly increases usability since the most important contacts can be represented with photos right on the Today screen.

* Stylus-free navigation – Spb now offers a robust multi-function application as Spb Diary with complete one-hand, stylus-free control. This feature has been requested by many users and the current implementation makes it really handy to use without a stylus. It is usability at a new level! Quickly find a contact and dial it with just a few hardware button presses. Spb Diary is the only Today plug-in in the mobile world that supports action-and-hold, the hardware analog version of tap-and-hold.
* Database engine improvements – Initial loading is now faster (up to 10 times in some situations) and memory management is improved.

* Special Events tab – Special Events tab is the best way to quickly overview all those birthdays and anniversaries from the user’s contact list and/or Spb Finance scheduled transactions over a long period of time. For convenience sake, these events can be grouped by months or by weeks for the current month.

* Easy document management with Notes tab – In the new version, along with standard notes one can now see text documents (.txt, .rtf and .doc files), as well as PhatNotes notes (these features were requested by a lot of Spb Diary users after one year of using the Notes).

* Skin support – The whole look of Spb Diary can now be personalized with the use of skins. Two skins are included into the standard package and since the skin format is open, more nice third-party skins are getting available.

* Many other changes and improvements – Spb is constantly gathering new feedback while Pocket PC manufacturers are constantly pleasing us with new devices. Spb Diary has been seriously updated in answer to the needs of most Pocket PC users and in order to adapt to new Pocket PC devices.

Clinton Fitch has already done a full review of the new release, so for more details and trial downloads, check:

SPB Diary Product Page

Clinton Fitch Review